This research, conducted at the University of Ohio last fall, provides clear numbers that finally show just how prevalent this behaviour is. The researchers used Halo 3 as the game of choice for their study, a strange choice considering the game has been out for years now and has been succeeded by both Halo: Reach and Halo 4.

Still, no matter the age of the game, their study reveals what I’ve known to be true for years now.

The researchers created three gamer tags and assigned each one a pre-recorded male or female voice (sometimes they had no voice at all, to act as a neutral comparison). Then, as they played the online game, reactions from their opponents were recorded and divided into negative, positive and neutral responses.

The study revealed that of the three gamer tags, the one with the female voice received approximately three times as many negative comments as the male and voiceless gamer tags.

What this study has done is prove what I’ve known for years. For the most part, the online gaming community, whether it’s Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network or a network linked to a PC, online gaming is still very male-centric and extremely sexist. It’s like an all-boys club with a giant sign on the door that says, “no girls allowed.” When a girl finally does come over to play, everyone just finds a way to pick on her.

For the past seven years, my online gaming community of choice has been Xbox Live. I’ve seen this occur on several occasions. I think the hostility towards women in online gaming comes from the relative anonymity of Xbox Live and the Internet. It gives people with the emotional maturity of 14-year-old boys anonymous power they’ve never experienced before.

The gaming industry in general is still a very male oriented place. A few months ago the #1reasonwhy hash tag on twitter spawned a discussion on sexism in the video game world. Women quickly shared stories of being isolated, marginalized and attacked in online spaces.

The discussion of sexism in gaming is happening in the background. But it needs to be brought into the foreground.

This recent comic created by The Oatmeal does a pretty good job of explaining why I don’t really enjoy playing video games online as much as I used to. Dealing with angry 12-year-olds that just learned how to swear and spew hateful words, just really isn’t much fun once you’re an adult and have better things to do with your time.

When you give little boys (and sometimes full-grown men) the ability to say horrible things and then hide behind an online handle that’s called “420bonghitmaster,” nasty things tend to happen. It’s an extremely unfortunate reality when it comes to online gaming and something that needs to change.

A woman gamer friend who’s been a Halo fan for years has experienced online harassment on numerous occasions. While she’s developed a tough skin, the hurtful comments still get to her sometimes.

“So when they see a girl online, they get all excited and confused. Or they can’t stand the idea of a girl beating them,” Jessica Booth said.

These are the kinds of messages Booth gets sent on an almost daily basis.

After they’ve figured out that Jessica is a girl, the harassment and attacks begin, especially if she has a high kill-to-death ratio and trounces the competition (which, after playing Halo for years, she often does). The concept that someone of the opposite gender could possibly be better at a video game than their male counter part just isn’t fathomable to many male gamers in the online world.

“When I’m in game chat and they hear me talk that’s when they talk the most shit,” explained Booth.

Since she’s good at the game, it must mean that she’s overweight or disgusting and has no life. It’s not possible that she simply enjoys playing video games like her predominantly male opponents. Those kinds of reactions are catalogued on the (nsfw) site here to showcase just how common those attacks are.